Future of world’s most famous sled dog race currently at risk

The future of the world’s most famous sled dog race is at risk.

Declining participation, economic woes following a global pandemic, climate changes and rising inflation are massive challenges for the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, which begins Saturday.

Thirty-three mushers will race with their dogs nearly 1,000 miles through the Alaskan wilderness. That number is the smallest in race history, down from a 2008 high of 96 mushers and behind the 34 who participated in the inaugural race in 1973.

“It’s a little scary when you look at it that way,” four-time winner Martin Buser, 64, who retired after completing his 39th race last year, told the Associated Press. “Hopefully it’s not a state of the event and ... it’s just a temporary lull.”

What is the Iditarod race?

The Iditarod is the most prestigious sled dog race in the world. The annual event takes competitors about 10 days to traverse two mountain ranges, the frozen Yukon River and treacherous Bering Sea ice, often in blizzards or subzero temperatures, before ending in the old Gold Rush town of Nome.

There is a ceremonial start Saturday in Anchorage, followed by the competitive start Sunday about 70 miles north in Willow.

The race was created “to save the sled dog culture and Alaskan huskies, which were being phased out of existence due to the introduction of snowmobiles in Alaska; and to preserve the historical Iditarod Trail between Seward and Nome,” according to the race’s website.

A variety of challenges have taken a negative toll on the race in recent years.

Slowing tourism, fewer sponsors

Mushers often supplement their income by offering sled dog experiences to tourists. That business took a dive during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“There’s a lot of kennels and a lot of mushers that rely on that to keep going,” said Aaron Burmeister, a Nome native who has had eight top-10 finishes in the last decade but is sitting out this year.

Without that supplemental income, he said, the cost of putting together a team of dogs is too great for many mushers. Sponsors are being more reserved in recent years as well, according to former champ Thomas Waerner.

Over the past decade, Alaska Airlines, ExxonMobil, Coca-Cola and Wells Fargo have ended race sponsorships after being targeted by PETA, which took out full-page newspaper ads in Anchorage and Fairbanks in February. The ads featured a husky with the headline, “We don’t want to go to the Iditarod. We just want the Iditarod to go.”

Rising inflation means increased dog food prices

Defending champ Brent Sass, who has 58 dogs, orders 500 bags of highquality dog food a year, which now costs him about $42,500 a year after prices swelled from $55 a bag a few years ago to $85 today.

“You got to be totally prepared to run Iditarod and have enough money in the bank to do it,” said Sass.

Buser said mushers often spend about $250,000 to race for the chance to win $50,000 before taxes.

Iditarod CEO Rob Urbach said supply costs for the race itself have increased significantly as well.

Impact of climate change

Lack of snow has pushed the starting line north of Willow three times – 2003, 2015 and 2017. Poor conditions coupled with urban growth forced a permanent move to Willow in 2008, about 30 miles north of the previous starting line.

Thinning ice and varying winter conditions are a threat in the future, according to Rick Thoman, a climate specialist at the International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

“It doesn’t have to be that there’s waves crashing on the beach,” Thoman said of the impacts of ice melt. “It just has to be at the point where the ice is not stable.”